Sign for street-railway cars.



PATENTED JUNE 7, 1904.

No. 762,108. H. WII'TB.

SIGN FOR STREET RAILWAY CARS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 14, 1903.

Patented June '7, 1904.

UNITED STATES PATENT. OFFICE. r

. HUBERT WITTE, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO ST. LOUIS OARCOMPANY, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

SIGN 'FOR STREET-RAILWAY CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 762,108, dated June 7,1904. Application filed September 14, 1903. Serial No. 173,079. (Nomodel.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HUBERT WITTE, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city of St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Signs for Street-RailwayCars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description,reference being had to' the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification.

My invention relates to a sign for application to a street-car toindicate the line over which the car travels; and, briefly stated, itconsists in mechanism whereby a sign-apron may be caused to travel inone direction under the action of a spring-roller and in the oppositedirection through the medium of mechanical operating mechanism.

The invention consists in features of novelty hereinafter fullydescribed, and pointed out in the claim.

Figure I is a longitudinal section of asigncasing with my signillustrated therein. Fig. II is a vertical cross-section taken on lineII II, Fig. I. Fig. III is an enlarged interior view of the gear-casingand the ratchet-gear of my sign-operating mechanism shown therein. Fig.IV is a perspective View of my sign shown applied to the upper part of astreetcar.

1 designates a casing in which my sign is situated and in the front ofwhich is a transparent sheet 2, preferably of glass, through which aninsight into the casing may be secured.

3 is a door at the rear of the casing.

4 designates incandescent lamps supported in the casing 1 behind thetransparent Sheet 2.

5 designates a spring-roller journaled in brackets 5, fitted to the endwalls of the casing 1 in proximity to the frontof said casing.

6 is an apron on which the names of streets are printed according to thelines over which a car equipped with my sign is likely to travel, andthis apron leads from the spring-roller 5 to a roller 7, to which thesecond end of the apron is secured, so that the apron may be Wound ontoeither of the rollers 5 or 7.

8 is a toothed wheel fixed to the roller 7, and 9 is an endless chainthat is mounted on 5 said toothed wheel.

10 is a gear-casing in which is mounted a toothed wheel 11, thatreceives the endless chain 9. Fixed to the shaft 12, on which thetoothed wheel 11 is carried, is a ratchet-wheel 13, and secured to theouter end of said shaft is a crank-handle 14. (See Fig. I.)

15 is a dog provided with a pawl 16 for engagement with theratchet-wheel 13 and having a handle 17, that extends-to the exterior ofthe gear-casing to be accessible by a person in operating the sign.

18 is a spring situated within the gear-casing to bear thereagainst andagainst the pawl 16, to which it is held by a stud 19, that pro- 5 jectsfrom said pawl.

In the practical use of my sign the apron 6 is shifted in one directionwhen it is desired to expose to view the name of a certain street byturning the crank 14, which causes rota- 7 tion of the toothed wheel 11and ratchet-wheel 13. When this rotation takes place, the pawl 16 slipsreadily over the teeth of the ratchetwheel, and the endless chain 9 iscaused to travel to rotate the toothed wheel 8 and the roller 7, towhich said last-named toothed wheel is fixed. The apron 6 is therebywound onto the roller 7 and off of the spring-roller 5, thereby at thesame time increasing the tension of the spring in said spring-roller.When it is desired to reverse the movement of the apron 6, the pawl 16is released from engagement with the ratchet-wheel 13 by pressing thedog-handle 17 inwardly, and the spring action of the spring-roller 5will then cause 5 the apron 6 to be wound onto said springroller and offof the roller 7, during which time the endless chain 9 will travel in adirection the reverse to its former travel, and the speed at which itmoves may be governed by hold- 9 ing the crank-handle 1 1 to regulateits rotation in a direction retrograde to its former rotation.

I claim as my invention In a Sign of the character described, thecombination with the spring-roller, of a curtain secured at one end tothe roller, means for conand a helical spring surrounding the secondtrolhngthe operation of the sprlng-roller comextension and bearingagainst the pawl and prising a casing, a ratchet-wheel within the thecasing".

casing, a pawl mounted within the casing for HUBERT VVITTE. engagementwith the ratchet-wheel and pro- In presence of vided with an extensionwhich passes to the A. DIEKMANN,

exterior of the casing and a second extension, M. H. MURPHY.

